Gate roller and hinge



,(No Model.) J. J. SWABTHOUT.

GATE ROLLER AND HINGE.

No. 382,844. Patented May 15, 1888.

N VENTOR ATTORNEYS.

Nv PETERS. Phawumu m lmr. Washington. D. C.

PATENT JAMES J. SWARTHOUT, OF STONES PRAIRIE, ILLINOIS.

GATE ROLLER AND HINGE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 382,844, dated May 15,1888.

Application filed March 12, less. Serial No. 261,012. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JAMEs J. SWARTHOUT, of Stones Prairie, in the countyof Adams and State of Illinois, have invented a new and Improved GateRoller and Hinge, of which the following is afull, clear, and exactdescription.

My invention relates to a gate roller and hinge device comprisingaroller or wheel and a ball-bearing on which the roller may turn andswing in opening and closing a gate sup ported on the roller; and theinvention has for its object to provide asimple, inexpensive, andefficient gate roller and hinge device which will give a moresubstantial support to the gate and its hinge-posts and assure easiermovements of the gate than are attained by the use of other devices oflike general character. v

The invention consists in certain novel features of construction of thegate roller and hinge device, and in its combination with a gate and itshinge-posts, all as hereinafter described and claimed.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part ofthis specification, in which similar letters of reference indicatecorresponding parts in all the figures.

Figure l is afront elevation of aclosed gate supported by my improvedroller and hinge device. Fig. 2 is a planview in horizontal section onthe lines 00, Fig. 1. Fig. 3isaview taken at right angles to Fig. l andwith the gate open, and Fig. 4 is a detail sectional plan View of theroller and hinge device.

The gate roller and hinge device consists of a roller A, having aflange, a, at each edge and supported centrally upon a ball, B,which isprovided with two arms, 0 D, which project from opposite sides of theball in about the same horizontal plane and parallel to each other, sothat the roller may turn on the ball to present its side faces either atright angles to the arms 0 D orin parallel plane with them. The roller Ais preferably made in three pieces, a central smaller disk, a, on whichthe gate rests and. slides, and two side plates, a a which projectbeyond the periphery of the dish a to form the roller-flanges a a,before re ferred to.

In applying this roller and hinge to hang a gate, E, the roller A,withthe ball B in it,wil1

be fitted between any two of the rails e e of the gate, and the oppositearms 0 D of the ball will then be fixed to adjacent faces f g of the twogate-hinge posts F G, which posts stand in such relation to each otherthat the closed gate may be slid or moved away from the gate-latch postH in a direct line or plane parallel with and between the two adjacentfaces f g of the posts F G and upon the roller, which then rotates onthe ball in a plane at right angles to the ball-arms, as will beunderstood from Figs. 1 and 2 of the drawings; and when the gate ismoved or rolled back sufficiently in this direction it may be swungaround bodily with the roller and upon the ball until it assumes theopen position indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 2and in full lines inFig. 3 of the drawings, the gate when thus swung open then .lying withthe roller in a plane parallel with the ball-arms G D and between thefacesfg of the hinge-posts.

It will be noticed that the roller-ball B has a substantial connectionby its arms G D with both the hinge-posts of the gate, and thus servesas a brace to both posts and allows them to be made lighter thanusual,and at the same time the two posts give a much more secure supportto the ball-bearing of the roller and gate than a connection ofthe ballwith but one ofthe posts would afford. Furthermore, this relativearrangement and connection of the ball with the two gate-hinge postsnever allows the sides of the gate to strike either post; hence the gatewill move either way endwise on the roller and ball-bearing,and may alsobe swung bodily flatwise on its bearing with great freedom and ease ofmovement.

The gate itselfmay have any ordinary or approved construction whichprovides rails or ways between which the hinge-roller may be placed, andthese rails or ways may be ar ranged in inclined positions, or may havein clincd edges, as shown, on which the roller bears so as to lift thegate as it opens and assist the closing of the gate by its own gravity,as will readily be understood.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is-

1. A gate roller and binge device consisting of a ball having twooppositely extending arms adapted for connection to two posts, be- I A,fitted loosely onto the ball B, and said gate tween which the gate mayslide and swing,and provided with rails or Ways supporting it to IO aroller fitted loosely on the ball and adapted slide on the roller andswing with the roller to support the gate, substantially as herein seton the loall substantially as herein set forth.

5 forth. JAMES J. SWARTHOUT.

2. In a gate, the combination, with two (li- \Vitnesses: agonally-setposts, F G, of a ball-bearing, B, vMOOLELLAN WAGG, having arms 0 D fixedto said posts, a roller, 0. W. STURTEVANT.

